Knockando Parish Church

Knockando Parish
Church

Close to Cardhu Distillery and
on a ridge looking south over the Spey Valley lies the beautiful Knockando
Parish Church. You reach it by driving almost into
Cardhu Distillery before following the road
round to the left and, apparently, away from the settlement. A signpost at a
crossroads a quarter of a mile further on points you to the left, and the
church is a short distance from here. There is a car park just outside the
churchyard gate.

What you find is a church that is obviously of fairly recent
construction. Knockando Parish Church was built in 1993 to replace a
predecessor, which was destroyed by fire in November 1990. All that had been
left was a charred shell. A major fundraising campaign was launched and the
exceptionally beautiful church you see today was built at a cost of
£400,000.

Knockando Parish Church was designed by the Law &
Dunbar-Naismith Partnership to reflect the spirit of the earlier church: and
the almost free standing circular corner tower is strongly reminiscent of its
predecessor.

Internally the church has a wonderfully light and airy feel. This
is helped greatly by the glazed ridge that runs along most of the length of its
roof. The underlying shape is very traditional, as is the presence above the
east end of the nave of a gallery. The columned porch built into the south east
corner harks back to even earlier antiquity, giving this part of the building
an almost Roman feel.

The columns are carried through into the interior, with more being
used to separate the nave from narrow aisles to the north and south. This adds
to the sense of space and light, while some beautiful modern stained glass
contributes to the church's very welcoming atmosphere.

Today's church is only the latest of several to have stood on the
site. The church that burned down in 1990 was built in 1757. It was later
enlarged in 1832 and 1868 before being extensively rebuilt in 1906 at a cost of
£2000. It was at this point that a round tower was added to the church,
which is replicated so effectively in the building you see today.

One feature unaffected by the fire was the watch house in the
churchyard. This was presumably added in the early decades of the 1800s, when
the scourge of bodysnatchers (or "resurrectionists") stealing fresh corpses for
medical schools affected even the most remote corners of Scotland. This threat
ended with the passing of the 1832 Anatomy Act, which allowed a legitimate
supply of cadavers for medical education and research. The watch house has been
converted into a free standing chapel.

Two further features are well worth looking out for in the
churchyard of Knockando Parish Church. The first is the presence of three
ancient carved stones set into the inner face of the churchyard wall near the
gate. They are badly weathered, but it is still possible to see that two are
Pictish symbol stones. The third is said to carry runes, but they are far from
obvious. The stones were moved here in the 1850s from an old burial ground at
nearby Pulvrenan.

It is also worth looking out for the remarkable collection of
immortelles in the churchyard. Immortelles were stunningly beautiful but highly
fragile memorials comprising china flowers, birds and other objects arranged in
a circular form and covered by a glass dome. They were popular in the 1800s and
the few which have survived have been protected by wire cages. If you find one
with an unbroken glass dome today, it usually has so much condensation on its
inside surface that the contents are difficult to see. We've never seen more
than two anywhere else, but there are at least five at Knockando, though in
various stages of completeness.